Cherry Blossom Extravaganza!






This is what the Cherry Blossoms are supposed to look like.  We've had such a cool spring this year that the trees were barely blooming on the first day of the festival, thus no pictures of our own. 



Our last day with the Stones was jam-packed with tons of things to do.

It was the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC, so we planned to ride the metro downtown and go to the National Building Museum, and the back to the monuments to walk around and see the blossoms.  After that we stopped in Alexandria, rode the Trolley up King Street and met up with some more Tucson friends for dinner before heading home.

Whew!

A big part of the Festival for kids was held in the National Building Museum.  Schools and businesses set up booths where kids could learn about Japanese culture and make some crafts.

No surprise, it was packed!

And extremely warm.  I suppose it's a good thing that Colten is still stroller-bound, so that everyone has a place to dump their coats!  I don't think he minds, though.

After we crafted our hearts out, we hopped back on the metro, bound for the National Mall and the Washington Monument.

The kids did super with all the walking they did!

We had such a beautiful day, but a little chilly.  I suppose we can be grateful for the exercise to get our blood moving.

From the Washington Monument you can see a lot of the main DC sights; the White House, Capital building, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and across the river to Arlington.

After gathering our energy, and escaping the wind at the Washington Monument we set up for the Lincoln Memorial.  It's probably about a mile walk in between the two, and very pretty.  Unfortunately the reflection pool is under construction, otherwise it would have looked a lot better.

All the kids (minus Colten) lined up on the steps:  Seth, Jonas, Ashton, Cayden, Mason, Lillian and Maren, with Tina off to the side.

After seeing Lincoln, we headed back up to the metro stop.  On the way the kiddos needed a little break, so the stopped to climb all over this tree.

We took the metro back to Alexandria so we could meet up with another family from Tucson (I'm always amazed at how all the Tuscon people Andy grew up with stay in touch after so many years!)

We got off the metro with our hoard of kids, and then boarded the free trolley that takes you all the way up King Street.  I spent the ride looking out the windows and thinking about how much fun I could have shopping there!

We met up with another John and his family for a big pizza dinner.  Between all of us we had 12 kids.  YIKES!  They all did so well, all day.

After dinner, and saying goodbye to John's family we hopped back on the Trolley,

back to metro and then home.  It was a truly packed, busy and fun day.

We sure enjoyed our visit with the Stones.

We LOVE when ANYONE comes to visit us!